Older and wiser: We Are The Fury reunites to headline show at Frankie’s Inner City on June 18

Four years ago, singer Jeremy Lublin and Toledo’s own We Are The Fury were on the ride of their lives.

Rolling Stone magazine named the band an “Artist to Watch” in April 2007, which was followed by We Are The Fury doing an East Coast headlining tour and releasing its first full-length album “Venus” the next month, then playing the Warped Tour that June.

A year later, both the band and the record deal it had through PureVolume.com and Warner Bros. had fallen apart.

We Are The Fury

“A lot of, I guess, the reason we were really sold on the label kind of dissipated,” Lublin said. “So we toured, and it was basically like being on a really small Indie label. PureVolume didn’t have a lot of money to put into us, so we were financially responsible for everything, and we got some great tours and stuff out of it. We did a ton of stuff in a few years and got a great response from press. We were signed for about five years, but at the end of it, it was just kind of like, ‘What to do now?’”

After the fallout, Lublin and close friend and We Are The Fury band mate Chris Hatfield were living in Los Angeles and started a new project called The New Romans. However, the two stayed in touch with former We Are The Fury members, even doing a show together in December 2009.

“I still don’t understand why a lot of bands just break up,” Lublin said. “You don’t have to play shows, but you can when you want. For us, yeah, we had some internal issues and stuff like that, but we still liked playing. It was just [that] we also wanted to do other things.”

During the past year and a half, they have tried to figure out a way to play more gigs. When Lublin came back to town two months ago and started working with Verso Group — a company he first started doing work for when he was a member of Hearsay TAO — it opened the door for We Are The Fury to do another concert in Toledo.

On June 18 at Frankie’s Inner City, We Are The Fury will headline a show that features Tropic Bombs, Mind Fish and The Strong Talk. Original members Lublin (vocals), Hatfield (guitar), Stephan Lublin (drums), Alan Hoffar (bass) and Brady Leffler (keys) will all be performing.

When We Are The Fury first signed with One Big Spark/East West Records (owned by Warner Bros.), Lublin said it seemed great at the time since PureVolume.com was one of the top music sites, but that all changed by the time the band’s first album came out.

After two Warped Tour appearances, being featured at SXSW, CMJ, Bamboozle and playing with the likes of Jack’s Mannequin, Head Automatica, Silverchair and the New York Dolls, seeing it all dissipate in 2008 was tough for Lublin.

“It’s definitely like a drug because once you get there you want to stay there, and when it recedes a bit you’re like, ‘All right. How do I get it back?’” Lublin said. “So you end up chasing the dragon. That’s the only way you can really equate it.”

Having experienced both the highs and lows of the music business, Lublin said he is always willing to give advice to bands and wants to help make Toledo a haven for artists. While Lublin cited positives such as the cheap cost of living in Toledo and being within a few hours of larger cities to play shows, he also added that there needs to be better camaraderie between local bands of different genres in order to improve the city’s music scene.

“Speaking from the position of having been in two of the biggest bands in Toledo at one point, it doesn’t get you anywhere being the biggest band in Toledo — other than having a lot of supportive fans, and that’s a good thing,” Lublin said. “But if people think, ‘Oh, I’ll be the biggest band in Toledo and then next step the world,’ it doesn’t really matter. You’re going to get there by being the best at what you’re doing.”

Doors open at 9 p.m. for the June 18 show at Frankie’s Inner City, 308 Main St. Tickets are $8 in advance and $10 at the door. All ages are welcome.

For more information, call (419) 693-5300 or visit www.frankiesinnercity.com.